Chapter 028

"What do you mean you don't have any money?"

Arthur asked as he stared in shock at Samurai who had his head lowered and didn't know what to say.

It had all started a few minutes ago.

After winning the battle, the first thing that Arthur did was to praise Charmander and check Metapod's condition.

After all, his whole shell was burned by Charmander's flame burst and it had almost cracked from the impact of dragon tail.

Arthur seriously felt bad about him.

He never wanted to injure Metapod to such a degree that he would just spew out blood and die and thankfully, his condition was not that grave.

Although he was badly burned, Metapod had still managed to survive thanks to its great defense stats. Samurai also has a burn heal with him and that helped his Metapod to recover a bit.

Normally, a Metapod would have already died after taking a super effective attack like flame burst and then, a dragon type move. Cocoon Pokemon have good defenses, but their weakness was the vulnerability to fire type attacks.

It was also the reason why Kakunas has straight up died after taking Charmander's ember.

But Samurai's Metapod had managed to survive and he even looked like he would recover soon.

Arthur wasn't even surprised at that cause he already knew that this Metapod was a variant and would become even stronger in the future.

He felt jealous of Samurai for having such a strong Pokemon with immense growth potential, but there was nothing much he could do about it.

He very well knew that he can't have all the good Pokemon and he needed to focus on his Pokemon rather than thinking about other people's Pokemon.

After all that was done, the only thing left was to get the prize for his win and that was money.

Arthur was quite down on money since he had used most of it in Viridian city, so he welcomed any amount of money. Pokemon trainer was a tough occupation and the basic source of income was the money received through battles.

But when Arthur talked about money, Samurai's face suddenly changed and a look of realisation immediately struck his face as he looked through his pokedex to check how much money he had left.

Then after a moment, he frowned and immediately bowed in front of Arthur.

"I'm sorry!! I don't have any money to pay you!"

Samurai shouted as a look of panic and anxiety appeared on his face. He waited for Arthur's response as various thoughts passed through his head.

Not being able to pay even after losing the match was a breach of the rules and if Arthur filed a complaint, it could even result in the suspension of his trainer license.

That's why, Samurai was so panicked and distressed.

"Calm down first and tell me, what do you mean by you don't have any money?"

A flabbergasted Arthur asked Samurai and tried to calm him down.

"Well, I told you that I fought against the other two trainers from Pallet town right. All my money went to them after I lost the battle." Samurai said with his head still lowered and embarrassment in his voice.

"If you didn't have any money, then why did you even challenge me to a battle?"

Arthur asked as he massaged his temples to take in this absurd situation.

It was common sense that a trainer wouldn't participate in a battle or accept any challenge if he was broke and had no money.

After all, it was too much of a risk.

'Was he so confident in his victory that he didn't even think he could lose?'

Arthur thought quietly and waited for Samurai to answer his question.

"Um, I actually got too excited seeing another trainer from Pallet town and forgot that I have no money on me. And another reason is my Metapod."

"Your Metapod?"

"Yeah…"

Samurai began to explain about his Metapod.

Actually, his Metapod was on the verge of evolution and even the reason why Samurai was seeking out battles with strong trainers was to give the final push to his Metapod.

He thought that Metapod would finally evolve in his battle with Arthur and that made him confident about his victory.

The thought of loss never passed his mind because of that.

Sadly, Metapod didn't evolve and even suffered a defeat. Samurai felt that it was his fault as he had gotten overconfident and now, he doesn't know how to pay Arthur.

'If Metapod had really evolved, then it would have been a hard fight. There's a chance that Charmander would have even lost...'

Arthur thought as he heard Samurai's explanation.

The only reason it was even an easy fight for Charmander was because Metapod has only one tactic. Due to being stationary, it can only move with string shot and fire was the weakness of those strings.

There was no chance for Metapod to win against Charmander from the start, but it would have surely been different if Metapod had evolved into Butterfree.

After all, Butterfree not only has a better moveset, but it can also fly which increases the range of tricks it can use.

"So, what are you gonna do about the prize money?" Arthur asked as he put a finger on his chin.

Although he was not going to file a complaint against Samurai or anything like that, he still felt like he was losing out.

It was his first trainer battle and he wanted to at least get something as the winner.

At that moment, Samurai proposed an idea.

"How about I give you something other than money? It's not money, but I'm pretty sure it's even more valuable than that. You won't be disappointed."

He proposed and Arthur tilted his head, wondering what can be more valuable than money.

"What's that?" He asked, still having some doubts in his heart.

"A treasure map!"

Samurai replied with a hint of anticipation in his voice.